page_title: New Model Army (band)
section_title: The major label years (1985–1993)
hierarchical_section_title: New Model Army (band) / History / The major label years (1985–1993)
caption_attribution_description: New Model Army en concert au Big Band Café, Caen/Hérouville Saint-Clair
context_page_description: New Model Army are an English rock band formed in Bradford, West Yorkshire, in 1980 by lead singer, guitarist and main composer Justin Sullivan, bassist Stuart Morrow and drummer Phil Tompkins. Sullivan has been the only continuous member of the band, which has seen numerous line-up changes in its four-decade history. Their music draws on influences across the musical spectrum, from punk and folk to soul, metal and classical. Sullivan's lyrics, which range from directly political through to spiritual and personal, have always been considered as a key part of the band's appeal. By the time they began making their first records in 1983, Robert Heaton, a former drum technician for Hawkwind, had replaced Tompkins.
  Whilst having their roots in punk rock, the band have always been difficult to categorise. In 1999, when asked about this, Sullivan said "We've been labelled as punks, post-punks, Goth, metal, folk – the lot, but we've always been beyond those style confines". Following a large turnover of personnel, both permanent and as touring members, as of August 2017 New Model Army comprise Sullivan, Dean White, Michael Dean, Marshall Gill and Ceri Monger.
context_section_description: The band then made four studio albums (plus a live album) for EMI and one studio album for Epic, in a period of eight years.  1985's No Rest for the Wicked and associated single "No Rest" both made the mainstream Top 30 in the UK, the latter leading to some controversy when the band sported T-shirts with the phrase "Only Stupid Bastards Use Heroin" during an appearance on Top of the Pops.  During the "No Rest" tour, Morrow left the band, and after some delay was replaced by 17-year-old Jason "Moose" Harris.  However the band were refused work permits to enter the United States, as the US Immigration Department had said the band's work was of "no artistic merit".
  In December 1986 the band finally got permission to tour in the US. By this time The Ghost of Cain, produced by Glyn Johns, had been released, and was named best album of the year for 1986 in The Times by David Sinclair, who said that it "was the best thing to happen to English rock music since the first Clash album".  Concerts included Reading Festival and a gig with David Bowie in front of the Reichstag in Berlin, and the band for the first time expanded their touring line-up to include a second guitarist in the shape of Ricky Warwick, as well as harmonica player Mark Feltham from Nine Below Zero.
  Thunder and Consolation was released in February 1989, and saw the band moving towards a more folk-rock sound, especially on the tracks including violinist Ed Alleyne-Johnson.  Described as the band's "landmark" album, it reached No.20 in the UK charts, the singles "Stupid Questions" and "Vagabonds" made an impression in America and the band was able to tour the album there with Alleyne-Johnson also providing additional guitar and keyboards.  At the end of the year however, Harris left the band, to be replaced by Peter "Nelson" Nice, who would play with the band for more than 20 years. 1990's Impurity, continued the folk-driven theme with Alleyne-Johnson still to the fore, and Adrian Portas joining the band on guitar.
  The next album was to be a musical change of direction; as Sullivan later said, "just as this folk-cum-rave-cum-crusty-cum-new-age thing broke and became big in the early 1990s, we went – whoosh – done that – and went and made a very angry hard rock album". The Love of Hopeless Causes, New Model Army's only release on Epic Records, appeared in 1993 and led with the single "Here Comes the War", which spawned controversy when it came packaged with instructions on how to construct a nuclear device.
caption: Nelson, bassist from 1990 to 2011
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